Terror funding: Kashmir businessman Watali’s bail stayed by SC

New Delhi, Sep 14: The Supreme Court has stayed the bail granted to Kashmiri businessman Zahoor Watali in connection with the terror funding case.

The National Investigation Agency had moved the SC after the Delhi High Court had awarded bail to Watali.

The Delhi High Court Thursday had granted bail to Kashmiri businessman Zahoor Watali, arrested by the NIA for his alleged role in a terror-funding case involving Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed.

The court said there was no prima facie material to show that 70-year-old Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali was involved in the conspiracy.

"The court is not satisfied at this stage that there is prima facie material to show the involvement of Watali in any criminal conspiracy with the other accused, justifying the accusations for the offences under section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC or sections 121 (waging or attempting to wage war against India), 121-A (conspiracy to wage war), or 124-A (sedition) of the IPC," a bench of Justices S Muralidhar and Vinod Goel l had said.

Watali was arrested on August 17 last year by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

Watali, Hafiz Saeed, Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahudeen and nine others have been accused by the NIA of "conspiring to wage war against the government" and fomenting trouble in the Kashmir valley.